________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
became a deputy commander of AMC. Brigadier General Herb Temple, later a National
Guard Bureau Chief, was the National Guard Bureau's action person, and so forth.
We would meet to try to put together the Army's position on the program or the budget.
From there, the two principals would take the results to the Select Committee, which was co-
chaired by the Vice Chief of Staff and the Under Secretary of the Army and consisted of all
the Army Staff principals. That would be the final wrestling area before the program or
budget was presented to the Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Army. So, we tried to wrestle
with all the issues at the brigadier/two-star level to come up with recommendations to the
Select Committee. We tried to get it--POM or budget--focused and molded into some sort
of shape, ready for the committee. We would highlight issues that couldn't be resolved at our
level, which would then be presented to the committee for their action.
That year, '79 to '80, I typically was our rep on the Program Budget Committee, and then at
Select Committee time I often would go with the Chief, General Morris, as the back-up
person, or General Read attended for General Morris and I'd go as the back-up person, or
sometimes General Read went as the back-up person to General Morris. That's how we
covered the committee.
Then, as you asked what did I do, what was my job during the year--it was principally
focused around putting the program together and putting all those kinds of initiatives
together, doing the Program Budget Committee actions and related things. It also broadened
out as Bill Read's deputy to cover other activities that went on in the ACE's shop across the
board. General Read left most of the military engineering items to me. I'd been a commander
in Europe, more recently in touch with things than he was, and so he left that to me. We both
were involved in the Environmental Office headed by Colonel Charlie Sell. That was really
coming into its own at that time. Lot of things were happening, so we worked that, whoever
was there.
In the Installations Planning Division, both of us worked that, although the master
restationing plan that I'd worked on in Europe was now big in the ACE's shop because
General Groves was trying to get the Army to push it up to defense and was really active on
it. Since I brought that experience with me, I worked the master restationing plan issues.
In addition, emergency planning was starting to get a big play on the Army Staff toward the
end of that year. Al Carton had Programming Division and, of course, he was so well-
experienced and had that all on-line. He was dealing with the congressional committees and
dealing with the Office of the Secretary of Defense. I would often be a participant in our
internal preparations for testimony, putting it together, but he and General Read really did the
prep sessions. I didn't get involved in the hours going over the testimony books. I'd be
tracking along so I could be a filler, if necessary.
One time I did get involved in testifying was toward the end of the year when General Read
was out of town. We had to testify before the House Appropriations Subcommittee
pertaining to cost overruns, in particular the Army's project, the new Walter Reed Hospital.
251
Previous Page
